Everybody and their uncle is familiar with the S&P500 index as a indicator of how well the economy is doing and as a benchmark for their own success as an investor. But how much do people really know about the S&P500 and it’s component companies?
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Lockheed Martin Corp (LMT) is the world’s largest military weapons manufacturer. Lockheed Martin receives 82% of its sales from the US governement, 17% from foreign governments, and 1% from other areas. Overall, LMT is divided into four business segments. 1) Aeronautics, which primary produces fighter planes such as the F16, and accounts for 31% of revenues. 2) Electronic Systems, which makes a variety of products for command, control, communications,
intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (C3ISR), and accounts … Read entire article »

Valentines day is now over. Single people can taper off their Prozac and stores can now start stocking up for Easter, the next big over commercialized holiday. Seven days have passed us by since the last Weekend Link Love and the blogosphere has graced us with all of the following.
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From time to time, I hear about people who are concerned about ethical investing. Ethical investing does not refer to avoiding the Goldman Sacs style of investing where you sell a product to one group of people while simultaneously placing bets against the product. That would definitely not be ethical, although it is a shrewd business model. Rather, ethical investing is all about making sure that your investments are properly aligned with your moral and … Read entire article »

Tax season is upon us yet again. We all pay an exorbitant amount of money in taxes. Seriously, go look at your pay statement and see how much money was ripped out of it by the government. It’s okay if you feel the need to sob uncontrollably while drowning your sorrows in a bottle of vodka after that. I’ll wait. I think most of us are intimidated by taxes, but because we pay so much … Read entire article »

Wisconsin Energy Corp is a holding company that provides both utility energy and non-utility energy. The major components of WEC’s regulated utility industry are Wisconsin Electric Power Company and Wisconsin Gas. The major component of WEC’s non-regulated energy segment is We Power, which was formed to design, construct, own, and lease power generating facilities to Wisconsin Electric. WEC also runs a small real estate business. Currently, WEC serves approximately, 1.12 million electric customers in Wisconsin … Read entire article »

The Yakezie Network is a network of personal finance and lifestyle bloggers. The stated goal of the Yakezie Network is to help readers optimize their financial life and lead better happier lives. And the Yakezie motto is “Selflessly helping others.” Those values are pretty solidly in line with my own blogging goals. So after some internal debate, I decided to try the challenge. Completing the Yakezie challenge is required if you are going to be … Read entire article »

I am a big believer in first and foremost laying out definitions. That way we’re all on the same page.
“Financially independent” is used to define recent grads starting their first job, wealthy investors, and small business owners. “Retirement” somehow applies to people who quit their job in order to work at another job, and to people who quit their job to be a stay at home mom, and to people who quit their job to … Read entire article »

I’ve always wondered how my dividend growth portfolio was doing vs some common index, like the S&P500. I’ve got lots of S&P stocks like CocaCola (KO) in there. But I’m missing some of the big boys like Apple. So does the lack of certain non-dividend stocks hinder my capital gains? Maybe it helps?
I’ve heard a lot of investors say that they think that their dividend growth stocks are as good as an index fund. Thinking … Read entire article »